When a data is communicated wirelessly, the communication must typically be performed with a high receive electric field strength in order to prevent errors in the data. The same holds true for wireless data communication between a computer and a printer.
In Japanese Patent Laid-Open publication No. 7-50630, a technology is described in which a plurality of antennas are provided, the receive electric field strengths of the antennas are measured, and the antenna that provides the highest receive electric field strength measurement is used to perform wireless data communication between a computer and a printer.
According to the prior art described in that publication, if a connection error occurs after communication is established, the error state is reported or printed out by another communication means.
However, if there is radio interference or a radio wave from a device with which communication is to be performed is weak, an average user cannot readily know that radio wave condition during initialization (after a printer is purchased or a network is created, for example). Consequently, the user cannot determine whether a failure has occurred in the device or the condition of the radio wave is bad.
For example, when wireless data communication is performed between a computer and a printer by using a wireless LAN conforming to the well-known Bluetooth® or IEEE 802.11b standard, the 2.4 GHz band is used, which overlaps bands used by other devices such as a microwave oven and mobile device identification. Therefore, there is a problem that an average user cannot readily know the radio wave condition and therefore cannot determine whether a failure has occurred in the device or the conditions of the radio wave are bad.
The present invention has been achieved in order to solve the problem with the prior art and an object of the present invention is to provide a printer, a printer diagnostic method, and a printer diagnostic program that enable the determination whether a failure has occurred in a device or a radio wave condition is bad during initialization of the printer.